Josey..my sweetheart

Edited for a question: Stacy asked "How do you shade (antique) the inside of your nestabilities?" I usually use a sponge with distress ink of some sort and rub over the edge of the die while the paper is still in place. You can also use a Copic marker with airbrush. By leaving the die in place you get the shading but also leave the outside edge uninked. Hope that helps Stacy. Thanks for stopping by today.

I've been yearning to get back into some good ol' fashioned scrapbooking. Just me, my photos and a stash full of supplies. I'm always inspired by Maggie Holmes' pages every time I see her layouts in Creating Keepsakes or on her blog. She's a fantastic photographer and her layouts are always splashed with the cutest elements.

Photo from Creaking Keepsakes Magazine

I love the thought of throwing some supplies up in the air and you just tape them down where they fall on your pages. It's easier said than done though...so I always seek out inspiration when I'm creating my scrapbook layouts. I'm really trying a new approach to some of my crafty creations.....a more mixy matchy, scrappy, eclectic look.

Here's my take on a one page layout inspired by Maggie's double layout. It's a 12 x 12 layout featuring some photos of Josey I captured this morning.

Am loving the small grouping of elements on the page as shown below. If you want to go with the mixy matchy look, I think it's best to keep elements all grouped together instead of floating everywhere on a page. Here I used Japanese masking tape for the journaling, a few punches of Dawn's new Dotty Biscotti patterned paper, a snippet of vintage lace, a tag with a stamped circle from Polka Dot Basics, tied Vintage Buttons and other circles punched from old ledger paper, old school primers, and sheet music. I ran a couple messy stitches back and forth over the circles and a few stitches over the lace to keep it in place. The scallop is the biggest from the Scallop Borders Dies from Papertrey. *Sweet Wonderful You* sentiment on the tag is from the Handwritten Notes stamp set. Such a darling little sentiment. Patterned papers are from Little Yellow Bicycle (purple) and Cosmo Cricket (rulers). And Josey pointed out that the rules go up to 12...just her age. Smart girl, she thought I did that on purpose....of course I did. ;)

Here's the photos of my sweet Josey Posey. She will always be my little girl even though she's almost a teenager. Her skin is milky white, her eyes are greenish-blue, she's funny and smart, a little social butterfly, loves texting and her Ipod....and is becoming a very nice young lady. When taking the photos, I asked if she would take her jacket off so I could see her cute new layered tank tops. She said.."Mooom, I'm freezing, hurry up." Reminds me of when she was a little, little girl and would crawl into a chilly bed and say "Mama, I feezin" in that sweet little voice that rings in my ears. Oh, I get teary eyed just thinking of my sweet little red. I'm going to put a brick on her head so she'll stop growing.
Okay, now stop crying on my pages people. Back to the layout. I borrowed Maggie's cute idea for the little swag and used some of my Wrinkle Ribbon which I sewed to the page, all crinkly like. Then I added two quirky and oh-so-sweet doodads. They feature vintage tulle, and lace and pretty tied buttons, along with some polka dot fabric. Don't be afraid to stitch on your pages...and stitch right over your photos. They'll be okay.
I added a little more scrappy goodness to the bottom corner of my page, using my sewing machine and a few messy stitches back and forth. Such a fun, creative process today. I loved gettin' all scrappy. I'm so used to scrapping lots and lots of photos on one layout. It's kind of fun just to focus on a few photos and then add lots of other goodies to the page.
And just for you, I've created a few kits using some of the elements from my page. Included are the two doodads, a bundle of Wrinkle Ribbon, the tag with stamped circle, lots of punches, vintage buttons, and the lace and ric rac. By adding some photos and a few other elements, you can easily recreate a page like mine. Or use it on cards or gift wrap. You'll notice I added a lot of purple in with my aqua and green colored kit.....mix and match the elements with ANY color. Anything goes!! The kits will be up in my Etsy shop soon.
Hope you enjoy. I'm off to print off some my blog journaling to add with this page. The precious memories.....don't let them fade away.